Compass Explore includes multiple sections that help you compare your selected app with competitors.
Each section gives you a summary view of a specific area, such as rankings, ratings, creatives, paid visibility, app visibility, market data, ads, metadata, or app details. You can use these sections to understand how your app and competitors compare in one dashboard.
Category Ranking
The Category Ranking section shows how your selected app and competitors rank in their categories.
You can use this section to compare ranking movement across the apps in your competitive set.
In this section, you can review:
- The category of each selected app
- Category ranking
- Overall ranking
- Ranking increases or decreases
- Visibility score
Change the date range
Use the date range selector in the Category Ranking section to choose the time period you want to review.
The data in this section is updated based on the selected date range.
Switch between ranking views
You can view Category Ranking data in two ways:
- Daily Rankings: Shows ranking data for the selected day or date range.
- Ranking History Chart: Shows ranking movement over time.
Use Daily Rankings when you want a direct ranking comparison. Use the Ranking History Chart when you want to understand how rankings changed during the selected period.
Open Category Rankings
To review more detailed ranking data, select the navigation icon next to the Category Ranking section name.
This opens the related Category Rankings tool under App Intelligence.
Review & Rating
The Review & Rating section shows ratings and review counts for your selected app and competitors.
You can use this section to compare user feedback across all selected apps. This section is useful when you want to understand how your app’s rating level compares with competitors without opening each app separately.
In this section, you can review:
- App rating
- Number of reviews
- Rating differences across competitors
You can also adjust the date range when you want to review ratings and reviews for a specific period.
To review more detailed ratings and reviews on the Reviews tool, select the navigation icon next to the section name.
App Update Timeline
The App Update Timeline section shows app updates for your selected app and competitors during the selected time period.
Updates appear in a calendar view. Each green dot represents an app update on that day.
Use this section when you want to:
- See when competitors updated their apps
- Compare competitor update frequency with your own app
- Review update timing across selected apps
- Identify important update activity during a specific period
You can hover over an update indicator to view update details.
To review updates in more detail and be redirected to the App Update Timeline tool, select the navigation icon next to the App Update Timeline section name.
Creative Explorer
The Creative Explorer section shows creative assets for your selected app and competitors.
You can use this section to compare creative presentations across apps without opening each app profile separately.
In this section, you can review:
- Icons
- Screenshots
- Preview videos
- In-app events
This helps you quickly compare how apps present themselves in the store.
To review creatives in more detail and be redirected to the Creative Monitoring tool, select the navigation icon next to the Creative Explorer section name.
Apple Ads Intelligence
The Apple Ads Intelligence section gives you a summary view of paid visibility and Custom Product Page data.
You can use this section to review paid impression activity for selected apps and compare how competitors appear across paid search results.
In this section, you can review:
- Paid impression shares for keywords
- Custom Product Page impression data
- Increases or decreases in impression share
- Comparison data for selected apps
Use this section when you want a quick overview of Apple Ads activity before opening a more detailed Apple Ads or custom product page analysis tool.
To review paid keyword insights in more detail, open the related Search by App tool.
To review custom product page insights in more detail, open the related CPP Intelligence tool.
Brand Protection
The Brand Protection section shows how competitors rank for the brand keywords of your selected main app.
You can use this section to understand whether competitors are appearing on keywords connected to your app’s brand.
This section is available for both:
- Organic rankings
- Paid rankings
In this section, you can review:
- Brand keywords
- Competitor rankings for those keywords
- Ranking increases or decreases
Use this section to monitor competitor activity around your brand terms.
App Visibility
The App Visibility section helps you compare visibility and localization performance for your selected app and competitors.
You can use this section to understand how visible each app is across markets and how visibility changes over time.
This section includes different views:
- Visibility Map: Shows visibility performance by country.
- Historical Visibility Chart: Shows visibility changes over a selected time period.
- Localization Performance: Helps you evaluate localization-related visibility signals.
You can hover over the charts to view more details. Use this section to compare how visible each app is across countries or time periods.
Featuring Analysis
The Featuring Analysis section shows how many times your selected app and its competitors were featured over a specific period.
You can use this section to compare featured placement activity across the apps in your competitive set.
In this section, you can review:
- Total number of features
- Featuring growth
- Differences across selected apps
Use this section when you want to understand whether competitor visibility may be supported by featuring activity.
To review featured placements in more detail and be redirected to the Featured Apps tool, select the navigation icon next to the Featuring Analysis section name.
Ad Intelligence
The Ad Intelligence section gives you an overview of paid campaign creatives for your selected app and competitors.
You can use this section to compare competitors' ad creatives and see which types of paid creatives are active or archived.
This section includes three views:
- New Creatives
- Best Creatives
- Advertiser Summary
In this section, you can review:
- The creative itself
- Media type
- Ad networks
- Impression share
- Duration
- Status, such as live or archived
Use this section when you want a quick view of competitor ad activity before opening Ad Intelligence for deeper analysis.
Metadata
The Metadata section shows metadata character counts for your selected app and competitors.
You can use this section to compare how apps use their metadata fields.
This section includes:
- Title
- Subtitle
- Description
Use this section when you want to check metadata length and compare how competitors structure their store listing text.
App Details
The App Details section shows app-level information for your selected app and competitors.
You can use this section to compare basic app information in one table.
This section may include details such as:
- Current version
- Category
- Release date
- Last update
- Size
- Price
- Supported device information
To review an app in more detail, select the arrow icon in the App Details section and go to the App Profile tool.
Related links
- About Compass Explore
- Set up an app and competitor comparison in Explore
- Navigate from Explore to detailed tools
- Download and share a Compass Explore PDF report
Need more help?
If you have questions about Explore sections, contact your Customer Success Manager or reach the support team through live chat.